PM+ newbie: questions re: filtering and making virtual collections

[MikeA]

I'll be putting some thousands of images will be in a single master PM+ catalogue. Then I'll need to produce subsets of "all" via filtering or searching—the filter criteria will be only IPTC keywords. (I'm guessing that filtering is easier or more efficient than using the Search feature. Please advise if I'm wrong about that.)

• Do the images to be filtered — in my case, I'd be searching through/filtering everything in the master catalogue — first have to be displayed in a contact sheet?

• With filtering completed, does PM+ display the images meeting the filter criteria automatically in a contact sheet—and those images alone? (As opposed to displaying all images—but with the matching images selected.)

The goal will be to move all images matching filter criteria, and their associated XMP sidecar files, into a number of Sessions created in Capture One. (Specifically, the C1 sessions' "Capture" subdirectories. The hoped-for result is that they would remain in the PM+ catalogue after the moves.)

• In a situation like this is it required to make an actual PM+ Collection of filtered images?
Or is it sufficient just to save the particular filter criteria for later quick recall?

[Kirk Baker]

Mike,

I'll be putting some thousands of images will be in a single master PM+ catalogue. Then I'll need to produce subsets of "all" via filtering or searching—the filter criteria will be only IPTC keywords. (I'm guessing that filtering is easier or more efficient than using the Search feature. Please advise if I'm wrong about that.)

• Do the images to be filtered — in my case, I'd be searching through/filtering everything in the master catalogue — first have to be displayed in a contact sheet?

As soon as you select criteria in a filter it produces results.  As you add more filters, the number of images produced reduces.  Only images that match all criteria at each level will be in the resulting contact sheet.

• With filtering completed, does PM+ display the images meeting the filter criteria automatically in a contact sheet—and those images alone? (As opposed to displaying all images—but with the matching images selected.)
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Only the images that match all of the criteria will be displayed.  None will be selected.  Those items that do not match the criteria will not be seen.

The goal will be to move all images matching filter criteria, and their associated XMP sidecar files, into a number of Sessions created in Capture One. (Specifically, the C1 sessions' "Capture" subdirectories. The hoped-for result is that they would remain in the PM+ catalogue after the moves.)

You're going to physically move the images?  If so, unless you move them with PM, the catalog will lose track of them.  C1 Sessions can't reference images wherever they already exist?

• In a situation like this is it required to make an actual PM+ Collection of filtered images?
Or is it sufficient just to save the particular filter criteria for later quick recall?

No reason to create collections for this purpose that I can see.  I suggest starting off small and make sure your entire workflow is worked out before committing to any one particular method.

-Kirk

[MikeA]

Thanks for your reply.

You're going to physically move the images?  If so, unless you move them with PM, the catalog will lose track of them.  C1 Sessions can't reference images wherever they already exist?

I'll move them using only PM+. I know they'll lose their links to the PM database if I do it otherwise. C1's sessions, unlike catalogues, don't contain referenced-only images. (They were designed originally for tethered shooting, typically by studio photographers doing, say, a catalogue shoot or perhaps someone doing senior photos—that kind of assignment.)

Sessions contain the image files and their sidecars—and the entire collection of C1 edits in separate XML files. This scheme makes a session easily portable. If you need to transfer a session somewhere, you just move its entire directory tree. There's no database to update. It's a workflow with advantages for some people, while others prefer C1 catalogues. I have always preferred the Session workflow. A common approach at, say, the end of a year is to import the year's sessions into a single catalogue—at which point the images are located only by reference within the catalogue.

No reason to create collections for this purpose that I can see.  I suggest starting off small and make sure your entire workflow is worked out before committing to any one particular method.

That'd be great. If the filtering alone can do the initial organizing job, so much the better. Thanks again.